A Guest Deriva
Some journeys begin long before the first pedal stroke.
Sometimes they begin with a conversation. Other times, with a forgotten photograph. For Ramon and Mariona, it all started with one of those coincidences that some people call signs.
In October 2025, a video about a journey through the Annapurnas happened to appear on YouTube. A few days later, Google reminded them of photos from a trip to Nepal they had taken seventeen years earlier. Without even realizing it, one name had found its way back onto the horizon: Thorong La Pass.
What was meant to be a journey through the Annapurnas would eventually take them much farther, into Upper Mustang, a land of arid landscapes, Tibetan culture, and villages suspended among the mountains.
This is their story.
From here on, I’ll leave you with them.
Do you believe in signs?
This journey is the result of them.
In October 2025, YouTube showed me a video of a journey through the Annapurnas by Elena Bravo and her partner. A few days later, Google reminded me of my own trip to Nepal seventeen years earlier. Since I believe that every journey should be imagined, explored, and dreamed about before it begins, the idea started to take shape in my mind.
The Annapurnas and the legendary Thorong La Pass, at 5,416 metres above sea level, were an obvious choice. But what would we do with the rest of the days? Where would we ride next?
The answer came quickly: Mustang. Upper Mustang. The ancient Kingdom of Mustang. A change of scenery, people, and culture, shaped by a strong Tibetan influence and its centuries-old monasteries.
Nepal is what I like to call an easy country to travel through. The kindness of its people, the ease of finding accommodation, the wide variety of food available, and the fact that it remains an affordable destination for us Westerners all make travelling there remarkably straightforward.
Even so, since 2023 it has been mandatory to enter the national parks with a guide. Could we have taken the risk and gone on our own? Perhaps. But if we want a country to develop, what better way to contribute than by helping create local jobs?
That’s how we met Rokha, our guide, riding companion, and, ultimately, our friend.
On the way to the Annapurnas
Our first day in Kathmandu was all about waking up our legs. We rode through the hills surrounding the city, immersed ourselves in the chaos of its traffic-light-free streets, and visited the Boudhanath Stupa and Durbar Square.
The following day, a van took us to Besisahar, where the real journey began.
Day by day, we gained altitude. We started at just over 700 metres above sea level, with the 5,416 metres of Thorong La awaiting us.
The first few days were hot, dusty, and filled with heavy truck traffic. But as we pushed deeper into the mountains, the trails became increasingly alpine, and the great peaks gradually came into view.
Manaslu, rising to 8,091 metres.
Annapurna II, standing at 7,937 metres.
And farther ahead, Manang, at 3,519 metres.
Many people spend a day there to acclimatise. We were feeling good, so we decided to keep going.
The following night, we stayed in Thorong Phedi, at 4,450 metres.
The big day was drawing near.
The day of Thorong La
We knew what lay ahead.
There would be very little riding. It would be a day of pushing. Hours and hours of hauling our bikes uphill, followed by many more pushing them back down the other side.
At four in the morning, by the light of our headlamps and surrounded by a long line of trekkers, we began the climb.
We were the only cyclists.
The first 500 metres of elevation gain were the toughest. Cold, darkness, and an endless succession of switchbacks.
But once we reached High Camp, just below 5,000 metres, everything changed.
The sun began to rise behind the mountains. The landscape opened up before us. And Annapurna South welcomed us.
That moment, surrounded by such an immense landscape, made every hour of suffering worthwhile.
At last, around ten o’clock in the morning, we reached Thorong La Pass.
I thought I would get emotional.
It didn’t happen.
I was happy, of course. I had achieved a goal I had been pursuing for a long time. But it’s also true that a group of young Israelis with loudspeakers, music, and constant filming ended up breaking some of the magic of the moment.
Even so, the goal had been achieved.
The kingdom of Mustang
After Thorong La, what would become the most special part of the journey for us finally began.
Mustang.
Upper Mustang.
A land carved by the Kali Gandaki River, home to one of the deepest gorges on Earth.
Imagine a vast, arid plateau surrounded by towering cliffs, wind-sculpted rock formations, and villages seemingly suspended in the middle of nowhere. All of it at nearly 4,000 metres above sea level, on the edge of Tibet, immersed in Tibetan culture, monasteries, and centuries-old traditions.
To make the most of our time, we took a pickup truck to Lo Manthang, the capital of the ancient kingdom.
Over the following days, we visited centuries-old monasteries, cave dwellings carved into the rock, and villages where time seemed to move at a different pace.
There were hardly any tourists here.
Just silence.
And that was a luxury.
The people we met along the way
If there’s one thing we’ll always take away from Nepal, it’s its people.
We especially remember sharing dinner in a family kitchen. A simple moment. Good food, conversation, and genuine warmth.
There was a sense of calm, harmony, and a complete absence of stress that we still remember to this day.
We also shared plenty of laughs with Rokha.
Mariona often says, “vale, vale.” Until one day, we discovered that “vale” means “chicken” in Nepali.
From then on, every time she said it, laughter was guaranteed.
It’s those simple moments that stay with you long after the journey is over.
Always forward
People often ask us what makes travelling together by bike so special.
The truth is, we don’t know any other way.
Ever since we got together, we’ve travelled together and always by bike.
We love arriving at places under our own pedal power. We love not knowing exactly how the day will end or what awaits us around the next bend.
And when things get tough, we always try to do the same thing.
When one of us is having a hard day, the other listens.
When one of us needs to slow down, we slow down.
When one of us has doubts, the other is there beside them.
But we always keep moving forward.
The memory that endures
When we think back on that journey, the first place that comes to mind is Mustang.
Not a mountain pass, a number, or a destination.
But a place.
A landscape.
A way of life.
And the feeling of having experienced a truly unique place, nestled between the Himalayas and Tibet.
Some journeys end when you return home.
Others stay with you for many years to come.
This is one of them.
Ramon & Mariona
Would you like to follow Deriva Lenta’s journey?
Deriva Lenta has been built step by step, making conscious decisions along the way.
If you feel like following how the project evolves when there is something to share, the slowletter is the most direct channel.
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